The USAID Rule of Law Innovation, Design, Experimentation, Acceleration, and Solutions (IDEAS) Lab provides a collaborative space to share knowledge, generate data, develop cutting-edge tools, and ideate game-changing approaches to strengthen the rule of law and promote people-centered justice.

Closing the Justice Gap and Facilitating Peaceful, Just, and Inclusive Societies

The IDEAS Lab is the USAID Rule of Law Policy’s primary implementation vehicle—a dedicated knowledge and support center for USAID Missions, personnel, partners, and other rule of law influencers and justice innovators to close the global justice gap and address the unmet justice needs of an estimated five billion people world-wide. Through a broad range of state-of-the-art methodologies, breakthrough techniques, and dynamic processes, the IDEAS Lab also works to empower local actors to facilitate more peaceful, just, and inclusive societies and demonstrate how the rule of law and democratic and accountable governance delivers.

The IDEAS Lab’s efforts will concentrate on three areas:

  • To assist those closest to rule of law and justice problems to identify and prioritize these problems and develop solutions
  • To support, including financially, innovation and experimentation in rule of law and people-centered justice programming
  • To disseminate knowledge and learning arising from these efforts and contribute to the global knowledge base for strengthening rule of law and people-centered justice

IDEAS Lab services can include:

Innovation

  • Co-creation and user-centered and legal design thinking workshops
  • Tools for incubating, scaling, and adapting rule of law and justice innovation

Design

  • Journey mapping and justice needs and satisfaction surveys
  • People-centered justice indicators and measurement frameworks

Experimentation

  • Cross-sectoral people-centered integration initiatives, (e.g. medical-legal partnerships)
  • Open innovation collaboration frameworks and processes

Acceleration

  • Elevate rule of law influencers and justice innovators networks and platforms
  • Legal tech and social entrepreneurship support

Solutions

  • Guidance for developing user-friendly justice services and systems-level interventions
  • Inventory of innovative technical approaches, achievements, and lessons learned

To learn more about and collaborate with the IDEAS Lab, contact ruleoflaw@usaid.gov. RULE OF LAW

IDEAS Lab tools and resources: